Advancements in, and demands for, technology have increased. In particular, high technology industries have increased their demands on the electrical power supplier, requiring more power, increased reliability and lower costs. A typical computer data center may use several hundred watts of energy per square foot compared to an average of 15 watts per square foot for a typical commercial building. Accordingly, the monitoring of energy usage and the detection of power quality events may be necessary for high technology industries.
Complex networks of computer and communications equipment may use a network management system to manage this equipment. One or more network management stations obtain information from the attached network devices using a network management protocol that communicates with agent software running on each device. Although network devices may offer a variety of performance data via the network management protocol, they do not have the ability to measure key parameters of the power system they are attached to.
The network management system, such as a computer network, may utilize energy meters and/or Intelligent Electronic Devices (“IED's”) to monitor energy usage. The energy meters and/or IED's may be part of an energy management system that is independent of the network management system. The energy management system may communicate with a network protocol, such as the Modbus interface. The communication within the energy management system may be independent of the network management system that is being monitored.